On a crankshaft of a periodically operating internal combustion engine of a motor vehicle, superimposed irregularities of rotation occur during rotation of the crankshaft when the motor vehicle is in operation. The nature and/or frequency of the irregularities change with the speed of the crankshaft. Comparatively severe irregularities of rotation develop during operation of the motor vehicle as the torque of the internal combustion engine changes, i.e., as the demand for torque from a driver of the motor vehicle changes. Furthermore, torsional vibrations are excited in the drivetrain of the motor vehicle by combustion processes in the internal combustion engine, in particular in pulling mode. To reduce the irregularities of rotation in the drivetrain, a torsional vibration damper, possibly having a centrifugal pendulum device, may be employed. The torsional vibration damper can cancel out mainly the comparatively severe rotational irregularities, and the centrifugal pendulum device can cancel out mainly the periodic torsional vibrations above a rotational speed range of the internal combustion engine.
Typically, torsional or rotational vibration dampers are employed as damping devices in a motor vehicle between the internal combustion engine and the transmission. Thus, torsional vibration dampers may be employed in or on clutch plates of friction clutches, as dual-mass flywheels, or as torsional vibration dampers in or on torque converters. Centrifugal pendulum devices in such cases are often components of torsional vibration dampers, where a centrifugal pendulum device may belong to a turbine wheel of a hydrodynamic torque converter of an automatic transmission of the motor vehicle.
In general, torsional vibration dampers that have a plurality of damper stages have a large number of components, which makes their production time-consuming and expensive. Furthermore, axial construction space, of which little is available particularly in small vehicles, is causing more and more problems when designing a torsional vibration damper as a double damper, such as a dual-turbine damper. Here, not only are the spring elements of the torsional vibration damper offset axially relative to each other, but the pendulum masses of a centrifugal pendulum device are as well. This requires a large amount of axial construction space. Furthermore, an apportionment of spring segments in the case of double dampers without a centrifugal pendulum device is problematic, since a satisfactory solution of a damper apportionment of the double damper cannot be achieved for all rotational speed ranges.